VFL Cats announce leadership group

Jackson Sheringham has been named a member of the VFL Cats' leadership group.

The VFL Cats have announced a four man leadership group for season 2015.

Rather than following the traditional system of anointing one captain, the role will be shared amongst four experienced VFL players.

Jack Hollmer, Ben Raidme, Jackson Sheringham and Ryan Williams will form the leadership group and share the captaincy throughout the year.

VFL Coach Paul Hood said there were a few reason behind the decision.

“There’s a few reasons for it but one of the main things is with the AFL side you need a face of the club, you don’t really need a face of our VFL program,” Hood said.

“We want all of them to be able to develop leadership capabilities so to have four guys gives each of them an opportunity to grow, we don’t want to put a ceiling on anyone.

“We really are about breeding a culture in the VFL program where everyone has a chance to lead because in footy clubs everyone needs to lead from time to time.”

Hollmer, Raidme, Sheringham and Williams will lead both on and off the field, undertaking mentoring roles to help develop leaders within the club’s VFL and Academy programs.

The four will provide varied leadership styles with Sheringham’s experience at AFL level, Williams’ as an inside midfielder, Hollmer as a forward and Raidme as a former primary school teacher.

“We are really fortunate that we’ve got four good leaders who are different characters, they’ll bring a wide variety of strengths to our program so we want to get them to interact with our young players as much as we can,” Hood said.

“They have different methods of leading so hopefully that gives a chance for our young guys who have different personalities to gravitate to a leader that suits them.

“I see lots of positives in terms of spreading the net pretty wide as far as leadership goes.”

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs